Business start-ups will encounter less bureaucratic red tape in the New Year with the introduction of a concierge service by the Bermuda Economic Development Corporation.Erica Smith, executive director of the BEDC, said new business owners will no longer have to visit multiple locations to register their enterprise. Instead, the BEDC will facilitate the registration of new businesses with the Office of the Tax Commissioner, with the Department of Social Insurance, and with the BEDC itself. The programme, expected to roll out in the first quarter of 2020, will be manual to begin with, but a digital platform is planned, Ms Smith said.Other government entities are “on board”, Ms Smith said.“Ultimately, the goal is a smoother process and to take the bureaucracy out of entrepreneurs doing the right thing, and being compliant,” she said. “At the moment, we are asking for the same information in multiple places. That is confusing, inefficient and frustrating for entrepreneurs.”Ms Smith said a survey of BEDC stakeholders, and the public, in 2018 revealed that bureaucratic red tape was an issue.She said: “When you compare what happens in other countries to what happens in Bermuda with the registration of start-ups, and being compliant by registering the business, Bermuda is very bureaucratic with all the places you have to go to register the same business.“It doesn’t make sense if you want to encourage start-ups and new local businesses forming and make them as successful and sustainable as possible. One of the ways to do that is to make the process of starting a business as easy as possible and to make being compliant as easy as possible.“If the BEDC is able to facilitate that, and act as concierge to reduce the burden on businesses, then we will have realised one of our goals and objectives for the country.“Ultimately, jobs don’t create themselves. Businesses create jobs, and our role is to create businesses and ultimately create jobs. “We feel there is a direct line to job creation if we can facilitate business creation.”